This is a sequel to WWIII.

"Higher! Higher!" The little girl insisted through her giggles.

"If I push you any higher, you're going to fly into space, Emily!"

"Na uh, Uncle Alfie!" The littler girl laughed. Alfred grabbed her from the swing causing her to scream and giggle.

"Yes, huh! Your daddy and I got pushed into space when were your age."

"Really?" She asked innocently, her big violet eyes staring at him. He nodded. "No!" She laughed again.

"Are you calling me a liar, miss Emily?"

"Yes. Daddy said you can't go into space without a rocket."

"Ah, you got me!" Alfred tickled his niece. She screamed with laughter.

"Stop! Stop! I can't breathe." He stopped and held her smiling at his brother's precious baby girl. She caught her breath and hugged him tightly while giving him a big kiss on the cheek. He kissed her cheek back and set her back down.

Emily was six years old and had two of her front teeth missing. Her dark blonde hair was in two French braided pigtails with green bows tied to them. She wore her favorite pink dress with a turtle on the front with green leggings underneath. She had her father's eyes and her mother's smile. She was the pride and join of Matthew's life. She was a total daddy's girl. Alfred adored his brother's daughter.

"Mommy says that I can get a pet kitty." Emily told her uncle as she jumped up and down.

"Are you kidding me? I always wanted a pet kitty! That's so awesome. I am so jealous." She gasped and stared at him.

"You mean that you never had a kitty?"

"Never." He sat in an exaggerated whisper.

"I'll let you pet my kitty, Uncle Alfie. She's gonna be soft!"

"Well that is very sweet of you, Em." She beamed up at him.

"I want to get a black and orange kitty. I saw one at the kitty store."

"Well you better get her!"

"I know! Daddy's 'upposed to take me today after we're done playing."

"Well we better get going, then, huh?" Emily nodded and took her uncle's hand.

"I think I'll name her Spot 'ecuase she gots spots."

"Well that's a good reason to name her Spot!" Alfred told her.

"Yeah. When can I play with Xander?" She asked him. Xander was Alfred's two year old son.

"Well he's with his mommy right now."

"Oh." She thought for a moment. "Will Aunt Nat bring him here for the dinner?"

"She is actually."

"Yay! Then Remy and I can play with him!" Remy was Emily's three year old little brother.

"Remember that you have to play carefully with him."

"Yeah, I know. Mommy says he's still a baby, so we has to be careful."

"That's right."

"Uncle Alfie?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I love you too!" He said hugging her tightly.

They walked back to Matthew's house and Alfred unlocked the door and let Emily run in before him. She sat down immediately and pulled off her shoes. Alfred kicked his off and stood waiting patiently.

"Can you make me some food?" He felt the small twitch of anxiety he always felt for a split second when food was mentioned.

"Sure. What do you want?"

"Can I have cookies?"

"I don't think you mommy or daddy would like that very much. They want you to be big and strong. Plus your parents are planning a dinner with all of us tonight."

"Psst, Uncle Alfie!" She whispered motioning for him to lean down. He leaned down so she could whisper in his ear. "I won't tell if you don't." He let out a silent laugh and looked at her. She covered her mouth and giggled.

"Well I guess with that logic…but you have to drink milk." She nodded and crawled into a chair as he pulled the cookie jar to the edge of the counter.

"Uncle Alfie?" He glanced at her. "You have to eat with me too." He smiled at her.

Matthew and Emma had really done something clever to help Alfred. They trained Emily to always have him eat with her. She had been two or three when he started really struggling with staying in recovery. Matthew had figured it out because he had whispered in her ear to tell him he had to eat with her. He had sat down immediately and ate with her. Afterward he had colored and built blocks with her. It had become a habit for her.

"Okay." She watched him eagerly. He put a plate of cookies on the table between them and set her cup of milk in reach. She kicked her feet while she ate and watched him as he broke off small pieces of the cookie.

"Why do you eat so slow?" She asked.

"Why do you eat so fast?"

"I don't." She scrunched up her face.

"I think you do." He winked at her. He heard the key in door and made a scared face to her. She covered her mouth and Alfred grabbed the last cookie telling her to put the plate in the sink. She quickly ran to the sink and then got back in her chair as Matthew came in with Emma and Remy.

"You're eating cookies?" Matthew questioned.

"It was her idea." Alfred said pointing at Emily.

"Hey! You said you wouldn't tell."

"Oh rats." Alfred laughed and winked at her again. Emma sighed and gave Alfred an annoyed look.
"Alfred, you know we don't like her to have cookies before dinner." She said. Remy ran to hug Alfred. He scooped him up in his arms.

"Uncle Alfie!" Remy screeched.

"Hey Rem-Rem. How was your doctor?"

"I got a shot." He said pulling up his sleeve to reveal a Band-Aid with frogs on it.

"That is such a cool Band-Aid! Did it hurt?" Alfred asked.

"Yeah, but I didn't cwy!"

"You are such a hero, dude. Iron Man would be proud." Remy gave his uncle a proud grin. "I'm sorry about the cookies, Emma. She just looked at me so cute."

"You really need to stop spoiling her. How would you like it if we gave Xander cookies?" Emma asked giving him "the look."

"He's two. Give him cookies or not, he's still going to be running all over the place until he passes out suddenly." Alfred chuckled. "Isn't that right, Remy?" Remy just laughed. Matthew whispered something to Emma and she smiled at Alfred.

"So when are we expecting Natalya?"

"She should be here soon." He smiled. Remy wriggled out of his lap and pulled Emily behind him to play.

"Mattie, do you want this?" He asked trying to give him the cookie and half a half in his hand.

"You need to eat it." Matthew told him. Alfred sighed and picked at the cookies.

"I'm surprised that Natalya went out shopping today." Emma said pulling vegetables out of the refrigerator. "She hasn't been feeling well."

"Yeah, I told her that I could just bring Xander with me over here and we could go shopping with Emily, but she insisted that she wanted to take him and go after her doctor's appointment." He shrugged. "I guess she's feeling better." There was a knock on the door and Emma disappeared to answer it.

"Thanks for watching Emily." Matthew said.

"Anytime! You know I love that girl."

"Da! Da! Da!" Xander ran into the kitchen and straight to Alfred.

"Hey, kiddo!" He scooped him up and stood up to spin the little boy around. Xander giggled. "Did you have fun with Mommy?"

"Yeah."

"Sweet!" Alfred held up a hand and Xander gave him a high five. Natalya came in with a few bags of groceries. Alfred took them from her and hugged her, kissing her over their son. "How are you feeling?" He asked her.

"Well I'm still a little queasy, but it will last a little longer."

"Aw, that sucks. Do you have a virus or something?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "Are you going to make me sick?"

"No." She laughed and kissed him again. She started helping Emma with preparing food. "Alfie, can you take off Xander's hoodie? I think it's a little hot for that in here."

"Sure thing." He put Xander on the ground and knelt in front of him. He unzipped the small child's little hoodie. "Did Mommy get you a new…" Alfred covered his mouth and grabbed the boy with his other arm in a hug. His eyes were wide. "Really? You…you're…" She nodded and laughed. He grabbed her in a tight hug and he kissed her.

"What's going on?" Emma laughed and knelt down to look at Xander. He had a shirt that said, "I'm a big brother," on it. "Oh my gosh! Mattie, look at this! Congratulations!" Emma hugged Natalya tightly and then Alfred. "Natalya, you always do the cutest things! When I found out I was pregnant, I left five pee sticks on the bathroom counter hoping he'd see them. I was too nervous to say anything because we'd only been married five months. And we just told people we were having a girl. Then the second time, I just told him flat out I was pregnant. You find out you're having Xander and you do this elaborate reveal. What did you do for that again?"

"Thank you, Emma! Oh I, what did I do, Alfred? Oh yeah he likes really baseball, so I got him all this baseball stuff and put it in a bag pretending I was just giving him a random gift and like the first thing was a shirt for his favorite team and some other stuff until he got to the bottom and I had a little gender neutral onsie that had a baseball and a big glove and it said something like 'I love my daddy' on it or something and then a little glove. He freaked out…in a good way." She laughed and hugged Alfred again.

"No, your gender reveal was beautiful. When Alfie started crying, oh god, I wanted to just get pregnant all over again so I could do something cute with Matthew."

"Natalyaaaaaaaa!" Alfred whined.

"Yes, love?" She asked laughing.

"How far along?"

"Um, the doctor said fifteen weeks. I'll probably start getting a bump soon." He smiled and hugged her again.

"You are so cute with a bump." He smiled.

"I didn't feel so cute." She laughed. "Especially at the end."

"Are you kidding? You were the cutest."

"I'm glad you feel that way." She hugged him, happy for his constantly unwavering support.

"I'm going to go tell Emily!" He ran off to the other room. Natalya laughed.

"I don't know why I think I'm having my second child. That was Xander. Alfred is the first. This baby is third."

"Hey, be glad he's like this again. Those few years weren't good at all. I'm glad he's back to the way he was before. Well congratulations." Matthew smiled hugging her.

He was so happy for his brother. Alfred was amazing with kids. In fact there was nobody Matthew trusted more than his brother to watch his two children. Plus it was good for his brother.

He had a few near relapses and an actual relapse since he'd first been treated. Matthew remembered the phone call he got from Natalya seven years ago when she'd caught him shortly after he and Emma got married. She had been sobbing and begging Matthew to help her because she had no idea what to do. Alfred had gone back into treatment for six months.

About three years after that, he started having a hard time again because he and Natalya were getting married and the stress of was getting to be too much. He had come to see Matthew because he really wanted to stay in remission. He had been crying and telling Matthew he couldn't eat and the thought of eating made him so tense, he'd get nauseous and throw up. Matthew didn't really know what to do to help him, but Emily had come into the kitchen where they were talking and told Matthew she was hungry. He glanced over at Alfred who was crying into his arms at the table. Emily, barely three at the time, asked her father why her uncle was crying. Matthew had knelt down, nervous that it wouldn't work, and whispered in his little girl's ear that she should ask Alfred to eat with her.

Matthew watched her tug on Alfred's shirt. He looked at her with a soft smile. She crawled into his lap and wiped the tears off his cheeks before saying, "Uncle Alfie, don't cwy. Eat snack wif me?" Matthew had watched amazed as Alfred agreed and actually ate, even if it was slowly and he did pick at it a lot. Emily sat in his lap while they ate. He had been breaking the cracker apart to eat in smaller bites to help him feel better. "Uncle Alfie, no bweak it." She had said giggling. "Like this." She had put half a peanut butter cracker in her mouth. "Now you!" He had laughed and put a whole cracker in his mouth.

After he swallowed told her, "I can put the whole thing in my mouth." Then stuck his tongue out at her. Matthew still remembered the amazed look on his daughter's face. Alfred and Emily had incredibly close since she had been born, so Matthew been hopeful it would work, but had still been relieved when Alfred ate. He actually had almost every meal at their house because he told Matthew that she took away the anxiety. Emma, Natalya and Matthew all knew if Alfred was having a hard time, he'd make sure to eat every meal with her though he wouldn't say anything to any of them. He didn't want to make them worry.

"Daddy! You're 'upposed to take me to the kitty store!" Emily said with her hands on hips.

"You ran away to go play with your brother. It's a little late."

"Ah! Xander's here!" She ran to Natalya who was holding him. "Hi, Xander!" The little boy shrank away from her with a smile. "Aunt Nat, Uncle Alfie telled me you were going to have a baby."

"Yes ma'am."

"So I have a question."

"Okay."

"Did you swallow a baby seed?" All of the adults in the room lost it. "It's not funny!" Emily said stomping a foot. "How do babies get in tummies?"

"Well Em, see when a mommy and a daddy really love each other…" Matthew smacked Alfred who started laughing again.

"Shut up." Matthew warned.

"What happens?" Emily asked Alfred, her face very inquisitive as she looked at him. Alfred glanced at Matthew with a playful smile and knelt down.

"When a mommy and daddy love each other, they wish really hard for a baby. And then, if you're really lucky, you find a baby in the mommy's tummy."

"But where does it come from?"

"Magic." Alfred whispered to her. She seemed satisfied with the answer.

"Yeah, that makes sense. I watched a movie with Gwampa and there was lots of magic in it." She slapped her hands to her cheeks and her eyes got wide. "There was a bad guy who wanted to kill the boy who was only a baby!"

"Well that is just terrible, isn't it, Mattie?" Alfred smiled at his brother. "Oh by the way, bro, she wants to go to the kitty store before it closes. I told her you'd definitely take her today."

"You are a little shit." Matthew muttered to him. Alfred spoiled Emily and Remy and liked to make promises that Matthew would do something for them and then tell him in front of them to mess with him. Matthew was determined to do the same thing with Xander and any other children his brother had with his wife.

"Love you, Mattie." Alfred hugged him before going to take Xander from Natalya.

Here's the first chapter of the sequel! I'll also be simultaneously writing a prequel.